Tuesday, 1 July 2014

A different galaxy: coral nails for 15DNC

Hi guys! I have two announcements to make!

First, look at my new domain name!!G How awesome is it? I've been going by this nickname for about ten years now, and it was time to finally make it official. I'm yet to transfer my bloglovin' followers and get a pretty email address, but hopefully these issues will be resolved soon. :D

Second, this month is promising to be busy for both the blog and my nails, as I'm participating in the Summer Nail Challenge held by Anna Manimunchkin! I knew I had to take part in it the moment I saw the theme list; not only because it was full of summery awesomeness, but also because half of them coincided with my own to-do mani list. And that's killing two stones with one bird...or something. x)

Today's prompt is one of those happy coincidences: coral nails inspired by my blog's new design, except in a little different colour. It's nebulae design (see my tutorial here), with a bit of a bokeh effect mixed in, done with acrylic paint. Originally, I was aiming to mimic the blog's colour scheme, but it wouldn't work well with the polish I chose. Thus, this part of space is on the orange side.

The base of this mani is Chanel Lilis, the polish that completely defies all my intentions to only buy ridiculously priced polishes is the colour is somewhat extraordinary. I got it last year, on the same day I got my university diploma, which is a story of its own.

See, I wasn't the one to buy a one-wear dress and pour a can of hairspray onto my head, no. I was rather the one to wake up saying "uh, what, is it today?", pull on the first more or less formal garment that fell out of my closet and go. My goal was to collect the paper and leave. It wasn't until I was surrounded by fellow students when I realised my plan may not go that smoothly...because I've forgotten to fill in my graduation clearance form. Which I've lost. Or maybe have happily accidentally thrown away with all my finals' notes.

As a result, I've only got to hold my (bloody honorary) dipoma during the ceremony. The next four hours were spent running all over the place (including the other-side-of-the-town-library-I-used-once-in-my-first-year), filling the new damn form, and then waiting for the unclaimed diplomas to be brought to the secretary, where I could collect mine. When we were finally reunited, all I knew was that I deserved a fucking prize. So I set off right to the make-up shop to treat myself to something very special...

...a bottle of Chanel Taboo.

And a friend friend for it.

And so, after an hour of painting a piece of tape (I very much surprised the assistant by asking to bring me one) and rejecting such fine specimens as Azuré and Bel-Argus (ughwhy), I settled on Lilis. Probably because at the time it was the only other Chanel pinned to my wishlist in it's most colour-incorrect version, and lived in my mind as the perfect coral (which it is not) that would look good together with Taboo (which I'm yet to try).

I was happy about it for exactly as long as it took me to get home and see that it isn't very different from my Rimmel 060 Hot & Spicy — in both colour and formula. All this time, I've been occasionally thinking about selling or trading it for something more special. Until this day. Because now, as I recollect this little adventure of mine, Lilis becomes less of a banal overpriced polish, and more of a souvenir from that day.

And just for that little bit of history attached, it's worth keeping it. :)